


By Rights

by Dawnrider



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe, Courting Rituals, F/M, Forced Marriage, Patriarchy, Unclear medieval setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawnrider/pseuds/Dawnrider
Summary: The night of the Festival of Grooms, Izayoi wants nothing less than to marry any of the men she's presented with. Until she catches sight of a lone figure who seems as disinterested in the proceedings as she is...Inuparents AU
Relationships: Inu no Taishou/Izayoi
Comments: 21
Kudos: 28
Collections: Inu Parents Day 2021





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is! This pesky idea that hasn't left me alone for a month. You will find amazing character art by the phenomenal @nartista-digital here, so keep an eye out for that!

Her eyes were bored, a bit dull, as she watched the man-shaped peacocks parade in front of her. This was her worst nightmare. A crowd of men who were all vying for her hand with little to no care whatsoever for  _ her _ . It was to be expected, given her status, but that didn’t make her hate it any less than she did. Most of the suitors present were human, though the few youkai there were less obviously so than she had anticipated. Aside from someone with odd coloring or markings here or there, it was almost impossible to tell them apart from the humans. They were all brilliantly dressed with their noses in the air.

Izayoi sighed and fought the urge to slouch. Her father would have her head. Even though she was behind a curtain, it was sheer, allowing the spectators to see her outline through the rose-colored fabric. If she wasn’t sitting properly, everyone would be able to see it.

Surveying the crowd as they spoke to one another, snacking on hor d'oeuvres and sipping flutes of some likely overly sweet wine, she did allow her lip to curl in disgust given that they couldn’t see her that well. Izayoi let her eyes drift to the edges of the room, watching the wait staff move along the outskirts, bustling and balancing trays in their haste to be efficient. One waiter almost lost a tray, but expertly maneuvered around an incoming guest and executed a bow to someone else as they passed. Which drew her eyes to the figure he had bowed to.

Lounging against one of the entrance pillars, his face was as bored as she imagined hers was prior to noticing him. He was regal in stance, tall and slightly ethereal. His hair was shock white, pulling away from his face and into a high tail at the crown of his head. She could just make out indigo toned stripes slashing across his high cheekbones. He had a strong jaw line and he oozed quiet confidence. Unlike the other bombastic stuff-shirts preening themselves whenever they thought she might be looking, he noted her attention with nothing more than a slightly lifted eyebrow and the tiniest quirk of his lips.

The words were coming out of her mouth before she could even think about them, her fan snapping closed beside her. “That one. I want that one.”

  


* * *

  


**_The day before…_ **

  


Most women in their country would kill (most likely by poison) to be in her position. The daughter of the very wealthy chieftain, considered a great beauty, men vying for her hand. Or at least that was the image they all saw, even if it was nothing like the truth. Izayoi’s reality was filled with stiff rules, strict dress codes, and a stickler for decorum looking over her shoulder at all times. Hana had been her governess from the time she was little, and had been in charge of her etiquette training as well as all of her more formal education. Izayoi had spent more time with her in her twenty years than her own parents. She loved her in her own way, really, but right now she wanted to escape her sharp looks.

“You are daydreaming again, princess.”

“I was not at this moment, honestly.” She sighed, uncurling herself from the window seat and brushing out her skirts to make sure they were not wrinkled. Her governess raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “I was contemplating our people and how their daily lives differ from my own.”

“Hm. You were imagining how you could escape.”

“I wasn’t! Not this time.” Hana sighed and shook her head.

“You need to focus on the gala tomorrow evening. You’re to be at your best.”

“My best. Why? So they can analyze me like one does a cow they intend to buy?”

“This has been the tradition in our culture…”

Izayoi sighed and walked past her mentor, cutting her off. “Yes, yes, for hundreds of years, I know. That does not mean that it’s the right thing. We have adapted to changing times in so many other ways, why not this one?” Hana looked heavenward for guidance and strength as they had been having this conversation off and on for months with no progress made. The elder of the two was insistent that she be prepared for the gala event where she would be set, essentially on a pedestal, and suitors would observe her and decide what they felt was an appropriate windfall to offer her father in exchange for a marriage connection with the ruling family of the region.

“There are rules,” Hana responded pointedly. “Rules that you need to read more carefully.” Izayoi paused in her stride, glancing back to see the communicative look on her face. Hana did not give her that look unless there was a specific lesson that she felt Izayoi needed to learn, or if there was a message in a text that she seemed to be missing. Izayoi raised a brow at her in question, hoping she would elaborate or at least give her a little more of a hint. When she could see that her pupil was at least paying attention and aware that there was something she needed to do, she nodded and turned, getting ready to leave.

“Wait, Hana…”

“The answers are always there if you know where to look.” The door snapped shut behind her and Izayoi was left resisting the urge to growl at her mentor. What kind of answer was that?! She sighed and went to sit at her vanity for a moment to collect herself before she went on a wild goose chase. She needed to focus on what Hana had obviously not been allowed to tell her but had felt it important enough to hint at.

“Rules,” she mused. The library would have several tomes on the age-old traditions surrounding the Festival of Grooms which had, over time, become the gala event they now knew. Maybe there was something there that proved the “rules” printed did not reflect what had become the new traditions.

  


* * *

  
  


“R-Right of First Born!” she called out when her father cut her a look from his seat beside her. He was irritated, then befuddled, then understanding dawned and he quickly became thunderous. “I invoke the right of First Born,” she said with slightly more strength. There were murmurs throughout the crowd. It seemed that most of these so-called nobles did not have the same education as she did, or had paid even less attention to the details of the traditions surrounding this event than she had... because it always went the way it was supposed to. Always.

Long sparkling blue sleeves trailing at her sides from the short jacket she wore, she took a few steps forward, hoping to gain full attention of the room before her father took over and dismissed her back to her curtained cave. 

  


“The right of First Born allows the first born of the chieftain to choose their mate…”

“That is the right of a first born  _ son _ ,” someone shouted from the back of the room. There were murmurs and chuckles amongst the crowd. Izayoi kept her eyes firmly on the tall man with the silver hair and indigo stripes. He looked a little stunned, but he didn’t move from his spot. Izayoi felt the sweep of her gauzy skirts move aside as she took her first step onto the stairs that surrounded the dais on which she and her father had been watching.

“The texts say only ‘the first born child.’ It does not specify that child must be male,” she spoke more loudly, her voice ringing off of the stone. “I invoke the right to choose.”

“Izayoi!” her father spoke up, standing to his rather formidable height. His face spoke of the reprimand she should expect when he got her under control again, but he dared not give tongues the room to wag. “You are mistaken,” he said more gently, leaving his chair to stand at her side. Were she feeling any less sure of herself, she might have backed down in that moment, but she knew she was right.

“It may have been some time since you read through the texts yourself, Father, since you are so busy with leadership,” she said, feigning a simper for his ego. “I read through them very thoroughly just yesterday and it clearly states that the first born child of the chieftain or chieftess is within their right to make the choice.”

Her father took hold of her upper arm, halting her forward movement and forcing a wince against her will at the pressure he exuded. He was livid. The youkai man who had so captured her attention stiffened, no longer leaning against the pillar. His eyes were narrowed and there was the faintest snarl on his lips. She noted that there were scant others who responded similarly, most of them looking smug or uncomfortable. But this one man, his face preceded his action as he strode through the crowd of gawkers, youkai stepping aside deferentially while humans scrambled in bewilderment. “Release her,” he growled deeply. Izayoi felt the vibration of his voice down her spine.

“Stand down, sir. My daughter is…”

“Is well within her rights to demand the Right of First Born.” He spoke with such authority that even her father was a little unsure, his grip loosening on - but not entirely letting go of - her arm. He then recited exactly the lines of the text she had memorized the night before in preparation for this event. “So it would seem, my lord, that your daughter may choose her mate.”

“Only under the condition that she can convince him. Should he refuse her suit, then I am to choose for her,” her father bit out, a smirk lifting his lip. Izayoi had been afraid of that. The verbiage was a little unclear, but it did point to the rule being conditional but final. Should she fail in this one opportunity, she would be trapped. She would have no choice but to accept whomever her father chose for her. “Now, Izayoi, who was it that you thought to select?” It was obvious he expected her to name someone who wasn’t present. It would have given her more time as the man was hunted down, brought to their lands, and then the fortnight she would have to convince him would begin once he arrived.

Her dark gray eyes lifted to meet gold. She watched his face go from expectant, to confused. When comprehension hit him, his face widened in shock and he stepped back. Izayoi fought the urge to cry out, knowing it would help nothing. “I… I choose him,” she murmured. The youkai man shook his head slowly in disbelief, then in denial.

  


“My lady, I…”

“ _ Please _ ,” she breathed for his ears alone.

Her father, not a stupid man by any means, quickly caught on that the man was less than willing and grinned. “Yes! My daughter has chosen! This man will be her chance to choose. If he cannot be convinced within a fortnight from now, I will decide who is to wed Izayoi.” He almost sneered at her, so strong was his feeling of triumph. “What is the name of the would-be suitor?”

The man sighed, looking plaintively at her one last time in hopes that maybe she would revoke her claim. When all that met him was pleading eyes, he closed his own. “Touga, Chieftain. My name is Touga.”

There were murmurs as he said it, those who had not known who he was on sight gasping or asking others to explain. But his name seemed to stir up the youkai more so than the humans. “The general? Isn’t that…” There were more murmurs, shouts beginning somewhere near the door.

“That’s the Inuyoukai general from the North! He’s not even a nobleman!” someone hissed from relatively nearby. Touga barely kept from flinching. As close as they were, Izayoi couldn’t miss it. The way his eyes grew cold made her flinch instead.

“Touga then. Upon the end of a fortnight, if my daughter Izayoi has not won her suit, Touga will be escorted from these lands and she will be wed to the groom of my choosing.” Her father’s fingers tightened on her arm one more and he made sure she was paying attention. “As is stated in the laws for the Right of First Born.” There was a rough cheer, more jeering than anything, and Izayoi bit back a whimper at the knowledge that she may very well have trapped herself into an even worse situation than the one she had started in.

  


* * *

The door to the antechamber slammed shut with an echoing thud and Izayoi fought the need to hide. She was not typically one to cower, but her father was furious with her. Hopefully he would be held at bay by the presence of the inuyoukai general standing stonily by the door. He so clearly did not want to be there. Izayoi questioned her initial instinct that he was potentially the one to help her save herself from this nightmare. The way he had drawn her attention had been visceral, an inexplicable attraction to a man she had never laid eyes on in her life. And his looks were not entirely the culprit. She had felt her eyes drawn to him in that room earlier. There was no other explanation for how she had picked him out so singularly in a crowd of brightly colored and milling men.

“You have embarrassed me, Daughter.”

“I did not intend that. I have the right…”

“Ha! No woman has ever invoked that right. No woman has ever needed to. You should trust your chieftain to…”

“To choose a husband for me from that pack of scavengers out there?” He growled at her interruption. “Remember that whoever you would have chosen would become my consort and therefore heir to your territory should something happen to me after you are gone, Father.” Despite how he was seething, she knew she had caught him where it hurt. He did not want to pass down his lands to an idiot, or to someone who could not keep them for their weakness. But there was a tiny part of him that had imagined he would outlive his daughter. Childbirth was often risky, as it had been for his late wife.

“My lord, if I may be so bold?” Touga finally spoke up from his corner. He had been silently contemplating how best to approach the situation. He had no desire to be a pawn in this family’s game, nor did he intend to marry this girl, no matter how hard she tried to convince him otherwise. The chieftain turned his anger-reddened face his way, lifting Touga’s eyebrow in bemusement. “I am not interested in marriage at this time, and certainly not to a human. There may be another caveat in the texts that…”

“There isn’t!” Izayoi insisted. “I scoured them. You knew them by heart, how could you…”

“Only the initial right to invoke choice, my lady,” he confessed. “It is much the same in the lands I hail from. It would seem that the laws come from the same source, many years ago.” The young lady blinked at him in surprise, then her brow furrowed in thought. He set aside his curiosity in her for now and focused instead on her father. “I would ask to see your texts, if allowed, so that I might read them for myself. Even though they come from the same source, I have seen that they change with time.”

The chieftain stared at him balefully. “I will allow it. But know this, General, I do not approve of this. I will not forget that you stood with her to invoke this right.”

Touga bit back a snarl. Allowing this human - albeit formidable in size for a human - man wag his finger in his face went against his every instinct. But he was trying to uphold some kind of decorum, and he did not wish to further endanger the young lady by being impulsive. “I appreciate your agreement to let me see the texts,” he responded instead of addressing the threat. “Now, I imagine that the lady would like to rest after her trying evening and I must return to my…”

“You cannot leave this keep,” she spoke up suddenly. “The period of courting begins immediately upon your presence here after the claim is made. Which was barely an hour ago.” Touga looked out through the window to gauge the time of night by the position of the moon. He cursed when he noted that she was right, it had already been an hour and if the time began immediately, he had less than fourteen days now to find a loophole and help Izayoi escape certain misery.

“You may see the texts in the morning,” her father interrupted their eye contact, sweeping between them to collect his daughter. He explained that a servant would come to find him shortly and take him to a guest room. Touga watched as Izayoi was taken from the room, the defeat in her eyes stalling the air in his lungs. He had seen that look before and it haunted him still. Instead of the dark gray before him, the eyes were the color of rich earth. Those eyes had been more afraid of him than the future.

  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izayoi struggles with how to approach her reluctant suitor while Touga remains ever aloof... ish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bonus contribution for Inuparents day 2021! Check out the collection here on AO3, and the Tumblr blog @inuparentsday!

The night was extraordinarily restless for Izayoi. She hardly slept, and when she did, it was only for a few hours before dawn. She felt drained. Splashing cold water on her face hardly helped, even trying it a few extra times to check. She dressed simply, which felt wonderful after being tied and strapped into the blue dress the night before. It was beautiful, but it meant she had to sit, stand, and walk very precisely.

“Oh by all the gods… You look terrible!” Hana cried upon seeing her. Izayoi glared at her before going to her vanity and sitting to brush out her long hair. The bristles slid between the strands, a soothing routine that almost put her to sleep. “We have to do something about your face.”

“It is my face, Hana. It’s not going to change much. I don’t look  _ that _ bad.” Izayoi blinked at herself in her mirror. Alright, so she looked a bit tired… and there were slightly dark smudges under her eyes. “I will put a wet cloth over my eyes for a bit,” she conceded. The pitcher of water on her table rattled in its dish as she lifted it. Why were her hands so unsteady? That wasn’t like her. Maybe she was more tired than she realized? But that mattered very little, if at all. She needed to start making her suit to Touga as soon as possible so she could convince him. She needed him to agree…

“So I see you took my advice and did some additional reading,” Hana said airily as she moved behind her, fabric over her arms. Izayoi stiffened after a few passes of her swishing behind her before lowering her cloth, turning from the mirror, and staring at her governess. “Hana. What are you doing?”

“Finding you something suitable to wear. You need to show him why he should accept your suit. Men need to be shown things, Izayoi, my dear.”

The younger of the two women blinked, staring at the small spread of gowns laid out on her bed, trying to find words. “Are you trying to dress me like a harlot, Hana?”

Her mentor scoffed and laughed. “Heavens! These are your dresses, Izayoi! Is there something more risque in here that I don’t know about? Should I find that instead?”

“No! I don’t want to show him anything!” Hana turned from the wardrobe and pinned her with a sarcastic look. “Not yet! I know better.”

“Hm. Well, you do need to hint at it, at the very least. However, my point was to show him how elegant you can be. Not… whatever it is you are doing now.”

“Rude,” Izayoi muttered under her breath. But her olive green simple dress and the damp cloth in her hands to handle her face made it clear that her governess was exactly right. She wasn’t going to impress anyone in this manner. And certainly not a man who she was trying to convince to wed her in less than a fortnight! Izayoi steadied her breath and bit the inside of her lower lip to steel her nerves. She needed to do this. There was no other option. “Hana… What do you suggest?” she asked finally.

After a flurry of trials, it was decided that the slate colored dress she sometimes wore for midday gatherings would be best. It was nowhere as wispy as the one from the night before, and there was no beading to stiffen the bodice so she was able to breathe more comfortably. She did have to be mindful of the length though, since it was meant to show the matching slippers as she walked while trailing slightly behind her. She had always liked the shawl that she wore with it, a hand-me-down from her mother. It made her feel like she was in her mother’s arms again, if only for a moment. Izayoi felt a little lighter on her feet as she left her room in search of her unwilling suitor.  _ I have to make him willing _ , she vowed.  _ I have to _ .

* * *

Izayoi was somehow unsurprised to find her would-be groom loitering near the gates to the keep. He could, theoretically, leave. The guards were all human, though there were a few youkai in her father’s employ, and he could make a run for it if he so chose. Something kept him despite all signs indicating he wanted nothing to do with the Right of First Choice she had forced upon him. Izayoi fought down guilt at the thought that she was using him.

“Sir Touga…”

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Touga is fine. No need to stand on such ceremony,” he said with a shrug. His shirt was loose on his arms and middle, the wide sleeves draping slightly from where they tucked into his bracers. A wide red sash wrapped around his narrow waist, the tail hanging at his hip. His eyes strayed back to the wall and Izayoi was sadly reminded of a caged dog, pacing and balefully staring at the gate that kept him.

“Would you like to walk, Touga?” she called out, hoping to distract him from his imprisonment in this place… at her demand.

He shrugged, one last look at the gate before turning to join her path toward the garden along the side of the keep. It had been her mother’s garden. She explained to her silent walking partner that she did her best to keep it up, but she was nowhere near the green thumb that her mother had been. She lamented the roses she had lost control of, the one thing she seemed more than capable of growing but needed the most trimming and taming. “Roses need a firm hand,” he agreed. “But when handled properly, they can be some of the most beautiful.”

“Do you garden?” she asked hopefully, her eyes wide and a bit hopeful. He paused, his face turning stoney. Izayoi realized that she had possibly asked a question that offended him.

“No, My Lady. I was told that was the case,” he explained, then took several steps ahead of her before she comprehended that he was moving on without her.

“Oh. I thought you might be able to direct me. My mother never got the chance to really explain how to care for them properly. It has been a lot of trying things and hoping for the best.”

“A trend, I’m noticing.” His tone was a little clipped and Izayoi couldn’t help feeling like the statement was a pointed barb. She fell into silence, walking two steps behind the inuyoukai general as he meandered the path. He stopped beside a patch of azaleas, staring at their delicate blooms, the colors varied and a little wild. “These. I know their scent.” She quietly told them their name. “I see. They are lovely.”

There was little more conversation after that. Izayoi felt as though an entire opportunity had been lost when he walked her to her quarters and left without waiting for her to bid him farewell.

What the young lady did not know was that Touga went immediately to the archives and demanded he be shown the texts that laid out the law under which she - and now he - were bound. He wanted answers. She needed him to find answers, even if she didn’t think she did.

* * *

The dusty archives were starting to get to him. It had only been three days and already he was ready to use his youki to blow the whole place up. The texts he was looking for were available immediately… but they referenced others that he had to go and look for himself, because apparently no one outside of the chieftain’s topmost advisors, the young lady, and her governess had much inclination - or aptitude - for reading. As tempting as it might be to ask for Izayoi’s assistance, he didn’t want to give her the wrong impression or false hope. He also had a feeling that if she knew he was looking for the loophole that would allow them both out of this predicament, she would try to stop him.

Touga sighed heavily. Then instantly regretted it when the dust set him to coughing. He went to the window and tried to suck in some fresher air. “Are you alright?” Her voice caused him to whip around in surprise, still coughing, and he found the frame of the open window… with his temple. “Oh goodness!” she cried, scuttling over to him to catch his elbows as his world spun for just a moment. When it settled again, there was nothing but her lovely and concerned face, lit by the light from the window. Her cheeks seemed a little flushed, her lips parted as she spoke his name. Touga fought the sensation of swooning, foreign to him, and found his palms on her upper arms. He was able to shake it off again and blinked down at her gray irises glowing in the sunlight.

“They’re almost purple,” he muttered in awe.

“You do not seem alright. You should sit down.” Izayoi backed up, forcing him to trail after her until she could plop him down on a chair at the table. He allowed her arms free as she moved to touch his head, checking him for a wound or bruising, he imagined.

Touga came to his senses just as she was leaning in to look more closely. “No! I… My Lady, I am fine.” He did use his hands on her arms then to gently but abruptly push her back from him. The shock and then hurt that entered her scent overpowered that of the dust in the air. “I have a harder head than you think,” he explained.

“I noticed,” she bit out, turning away from him and going to the table to peruse the books he had open. “You are looking for… This is related to succession,” she pointed out. “This won’t help you get out of the claim.”  _ No, but it might help you _ , he thought. With a quick shake of his head, the inuyoukai general stood to stand across the table from her, needing the distance between them even more than he needed fresh air.

He explained how the laws around the marriage of a female child of the leader were fraught with details and caveats that could be argued. Often they were, because one leader or another wanted to twist something in their favor. He said it was true in his own kingdom as well in the past. They had a more clear line of succession now, however, since it was by blood and blood alone. “A consort to a bloodline could never take leadership there, even if the king or queen died, because it automatically passes to the eldest blood relative.”

“Does that not lead to more assasination attempts within the royal family?” Izayoi wondered, a quizzical look on her face that had Touga drawn to the faint pout of her lips. He shook it off, growling to himself for a moment. “I was simply positing that it would be easy for a blood relative to have their predecessors all assassinated so that they are closer in line to the throne.”

“It is not that,” he murmured. Though, in a way, it was. She was right. The rules of succession were often complex to try and prevent exactly as she said. But it also meant that determining succession within this kingdom was not likely to give him the escape they both needed to find. Here, the fact that he was not of this chiefdom meant little. It was in no way a barrier to them marrying as it might be in other territories. They had a long history of outsiders marrying in. Touga studied the pages open in front of him, tracing the chief’s family line on the branches carefully handwritten and sprawling across the paper. “Your family is highly varied in their ancestry. It would appear to have been to your benefit,” he mused.

Izayoi shifted, sliding her backside up onto the table and hovering beside him to look down at what he was studying. “Ah. Yes. My mother was from a neighboring territory.” Her slim finger gently collided with his as she pointed to her mother’s name. The inuyoukai general snatched his hands back from the book, nearly headbutting her in his haste to back away. “Oh!” she gasped, her small hand going to her heart and her gray eyes wide in her face. “I…”

“My apologies, My Lady,” he spat out, bowing abruptly and turning on his heel to leave immediately. The pattering of feet across the stone forced his feet faster, but he knew better than to run. “My lady,” he barely kept from pleading with her. He needed to keep some semblance of decorum with her. He couldn’t let her see even the tiniest crack in his armor.

“Why is it that you fear me so?”

Touga froze midstep, the faint sensation of being shot through hitting his chest. How was it that this little slip of a human so easily read him?! They barely knew one another! “I do not fear you.” Izayoi rounded him and he took a step back, entirely belying his previous statement.

“Is that so?” she said with a slight smirk. She was barely as tall as his shoulders and here he was, cornered by a woman who he could lift over his head without breaking a sweat. “You seem awfully shy for a great general.” The way she reached out to touch the sash at his waist made him flinch, but it was her words that hit him like a punch to the gut.

He snarled, gasping her tiny wrist in his larger hand up over her head and backing her to the opposite wall. She gasped in surprise, yet there was only a tickle of fear in her scent and it made him… angry. Unreasonably angry. “You mistake control and deference to your station with meekness, My Lady,” he bit out through bared teeth. “You should fear me and that you do not proves how foolish you truly are.” Izayoi only blinked at him, the startled edge fading from her gaze. “You are naive, Little Izayoi, if you think that this will work out in your favor. I am a youkai. A dog. I am a  _ beast _ , no matter what you think you see.”

“I see a strong man with more intelligence and sense than the entirety of that gala put together.” Touga blinked, his grip loosening on her wrist. “I see someone who fights for others, cares for their wellbeing at the cost of his own,” His fingers slipped down her arm and shoulder until he came to his senses and made a fist against the bricks at her back.

“Not at the cost of your future, My Lady. I will not let you waste your life.”

“You will agree to the claim then?” she asked hopefully, entirely misinterpreting his meaning. “That is…”

“No.” Touga pulled himself back and fisted his hands at his sides, claws digging into his palms in his frustration. “No. Agreeing to the claim would ensure that you lose what future is possible for you.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head, turning on his heel and walking away as quickly as he could manage without running. He felt her eyes on his back until he turned the corner at the end of the hall.


End file.
